North Carolina readies in case oil comes ashore

AP

May 26, 2010 4:22:09 PM PDT

RALEIGH --

Governor Beverly Perdue said Wednesday that she's been told that if oil reaches North Carolina's beaches, it will likely be heavily diluted.

But Perdue said she's not one for believing a lot of what she's been told about the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that's dumping thousands of gallons of crude into the sea, and she wants to make doubly sure the state is doing everything it can to get ready if the worst happens.

Perdue told reporters she assembled a team of experts to look at the issue last Friday. Officials looked over the state's Emergency Operations Plan.

The governor and others stressed that all North Carolina beaches are open and no closures are anticipated at the moment.

Some tarballs have washed ashore, but experts say that's not unusual and they have no evidence they're related to the Gulf spill.

If a significant amount of oil should reach North Carolina, officials said the US Coast Guard would be the lead agency to deal with it. The N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and its Division of Emergency Management is the lead state response agency.

Officials also issued a set of guidelines for residents that deal with issues like skin contact and fishing in contaminated waters.